I ain't talkin' just repaints. I'm talking brand new self made units. If so, when or how do you use them, and how well do they work out?
'Cause I've got a couple of customs I'd love to make.
Do you ever use custom units?
Oh yes, I am going to be making a great many special models for this wonderful game.
I am in the process of buying new materials to get these projects started soon.
What are you planning to build?
Lots of people do.
I will likely get campaigns going where you name your pilots and if they survive (both not being shot down and some survival roll) they will get upgrades (if anyone else around here will actually play this game consistently). This would accompany repairing and such. But that is more "custom are than unit.
Surf the forums and you'll see lots of mods and some custom made ships (usually bigger). Surf the wed and see 3-d printed every kind of ship.
Good luck and post pics!
Oh yes, I am going to be making a great many special models for this wonderful game.
I am in the process of buying new materials to get these projects started soon.
What are you planning to build?
Oh, I was gonna' buy an HWK and work on a ship I designed off of it. A far more usable, more sloped cockpit, missile capabilities, much more of a combat ship, but more fragile on the armor side, maybe 2-3 armor, 2 shields. Long story for the design, and of course it'd be a fair bit more expensive than a stock HWK. Just a simple mod.
Really though I'd love to build stuff like a YT-2000 or a VT-49.
Here are some of the customs I have done. They are fresh from the shipyard so I have not played them yet. 
Take the HWK, drop the turret for a cannon, and add 2 missile slots. Maybe increase the cost by a point or two. Basically the cargo pods on the sides would be innocuous looking missile bays. Gives the Rebels another missile carrier and a cheap cannon boat.
Here are some of the customs I have done. They are fresh from the shipyard so I have not played them yet.
Those are gorgeous.
Take the HWK, drop the turret for a cannon, and add 2 missile slots. Maybe increase the cost by a point or two. Basically the cargo pods on the sides would be innocuous looking missile bays. Gives the Rebels another missile carrier and a cheap cannon boat.
Was actually going to add one missile slot, but I was iffy on dropping the turret. The cannon would be nice though. Autoblaster or heavy laser cannon just sounds really badass.
The ship concept is a militarized version of The HWK produced during The Clone Wars, based off an old fic I wrote that I'm in the process of re-writing. Part of a squad of limited production vessels, The Vornskr, as it was named, was equipped with missiles, blasters on the wings (Where people generally thing HWK blasters are, but those are actually sensors/rangefingers), and a co-pilot controlled turret (That could indeed be a cannon instead)
Its structural differences included straightened wings, (angled down still, but not swept.), a cockpit that allowed the front viewport to be used (Visibility was akin to an X-wing's), and two pairs of canards for increased atmospheric performance (Nose, wings, wing ones slanted upwards like vertical stabilizers).
I need to re-draw it sometime.
I'd also add a blaster cannon: Spend a focus to fire, range 1-3, 3 attack, cost 2.
Yup. There's 4 of them in action in this game. (The Lambda used to be a custom before GenCon, and the pilot for it is a custom).
Scimitar, Sheathipede, Lambda, and... Can't spot 4.
What's that little tiny thing just in front of the Falcon?
I thought that was Debris. Upon closer inspection it COULD be a Delta-7 Aethersprite.
Or it's just debris.
Never
I thought that was Debris. Upon closer inspection it COULD be a Delta-7 Aethersprite.
Ding! It is an Aethersprite -- that Clix model is the right scale for X-Wing.
Never
Aw man whoa that's beautiful!
I thought that was Debris. Upon closer inspection it COULD be a Delta-7 Aethersprite.
Ding! It is an Aethersprite -- that Clix model is the right scale for X-Wing.
AHA!
I've got one on the workbench, but I want to save it as a surprise. Hint: it's a large Imperial ship.
I've got one on the workbench, but I want to save it as a surprise.
22' in length!
I thought that was Debris. Upon closer inspection it COULD be a Delta-7 Aethersprite.
Ding! It is an Aethersprite -- that Clix model is the right scale for X-Wing.
Two things. What kind of stat line have you given it and can we get a close up picture of if?
Yup. There's 4 of them in action in this game. (The Lambda used to be a custom before GenCon, and the pilot for it is a custom).
Digging the Sith Infiltrator! Sweet!
Two things. What kind of stat line have you given it and can we get a close up picture of if?
I don't have super close-up photos yet. Maybe later this week I'll have time to get back to doing photos of all the custom ships in that game and blog up the details of the models and their stats.. (I've gotten distracted recently with painting up armies for one of my other all-time favorite games, De Bellis Antiquitatis, and blogging those.)
But if you go to the entry on the Big Game and click on the photos to get the bigger resolution, you can see more of the ships in action. http://goblinhall.com/2013/08/26/1st-big-squadron-game/
For the Aethersprite, I used the A-Wing dial and tweaked the A-Wing Stats. Changed it to Hull 3, Shields 0; slots for pilot upgrade and bomb (seismic charge is traditional); all the same action options as the A-Wing. The Delta-7 had the droid built in, so the droid is the unique named identity of any surviving ships. The pilot upgrade slot reflects whichever pilot may have stumbled upon the old ship.
I've re-painted 2 A-Wing Cards for the Delta-7:
* R3-D, PS5. [the special ability of the standard droid is the built-in PS5]
* R4-PJ, PS7, After you perform an attack, you may assign 1 Evade Token to this ship; you may not spend more than 1 Evade Token per attack.
We used R4-PJ in that game. I hadn't worked out the points yet. Precise points aren't critical in big scenarios. They will work out somewhere in the low-mid 20's. I'll figure that out as part of getting the blog entry ready
These ships have a unique movement ability. I mounted the model on a Litko 25mm square flight base. (The soft plastic peg of the model just threaded itself while screwing it into the brass nut in the base!) There are no movement template nubs on this base. So, regular movement works sort of like a barrel-roll. Place the template anywhere along the front edge, as long as the template doesn't overextend past the side edge of the base. At the far end of the move, the ship can be positioned anywhere that the template doesn't overextend. Gives the nimble little ship a small, but handy, amount of wiggle room.
Last night we used a custom ship, a Vanguard-class heavy assault gunship. Here's a pic of the model I'm working on, prior to it getting its undercoat...
Your custom model is excellent, so don't take this the wrong way, but talk about some blind spots to port and starboard. 
Anyways, look forward to seeing some paint on it.
I like the card builder that another user created. I think that gives you some interesting options for stuff to create. It's pretty cool, to be honest. Now, if I could only get the stupid pictures thing to work.